Top Ten Tuesday: Books that have been on my to-read list for awhile

Today's topic tackles books that we've been reading to mean for far too long. Meredith's list of books she will read (really, she totally will read these someday) is listed below. Which books have been on your list for a long time?

Top Ten Tuesday is a theme from That Artsy Reader Girl's blog.

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1. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami– This, like a few books on my to-read list, is actually a book I need to finish. My thesis partner wrote her paper on this Murakami novel, so at the time I read some of it to get a sense of what she was writing about. But I also had way too much of my own work to do which prevented me from reading the entire thing book. It’s always been one I’ve wanted to go back to.

2. The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley– I think I got this book for Christmas one year when I was in high school, back when I was way more ambitious. I was intrigued by the idea of the King Arthur legend told from a female point of view, but eventually was put off by the almost 900 page length. I still have that copy, thinking that maybe I’ll get to it.

3. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin– My dad and I watched the not very good miniseries adaptation of this book back in 2004. Earthsea is one of his favorite science fiction/fantasy novels and always suggested I should read it. It skipped to the front of my mind with the recent passing of author Ursula K. Le Guin.

4. A Confederacy of Dunces – Another pick from my dad, I could not count the number of times he’s told me to read, what he considers, the funniest book ever written. In fact, he literally gifted me a copy of it this Christmas, so I guess I have to read it now.

5. Deerskin – I read Robin McKinley’s Beauty and I really liked her retelling of Beauty and the Beast. I’ve often considered reading another of her fairytale adaptations, although given the mixed reviews of Deerskin on Goodreads, I’m not exactly sure why I decided to put this on my to-read list.

6. Doomsday Book by Connie Willis– This is one of the more frustrating entries on my list because I’ve read about half of Connie Willis’ book, but put it down at some point. When I went back to it, I had forgotten some characters names and couldn’t manage to get back in. What I had read, I thought was really excellent, so I hope I eventually return to it.

7. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers– I snagged this book from a guest room I was staying in when I was visiting a friend’s family. I cannot figure out why I’ve had such a hard time generating the necessary enthusiasm to start reading this book. It’s a modern American classic written by a female author, there’s nothing about that I don’t like.

8. The Stories of Eva Luna by Isabel Allende– Back in 2014, I mentioned having only read Daughter of Fortune from author Isabel Allende after she visited Washington, DC when I was a senior in college. My roommate mentioned The Stories of Eva Luna as her favorite Allende book and guess what, I still haven’t read it.

9. I’m Perfect, You’re Doomed by Kyria Abrahams– I was trying to read memoirs written by people who grew up in various types of religious households, but I appear to have petered out at this book about girl who was raised Jehovah’s Witness.

10. The Sweet Trade by Elizabeth Garrett– Probably the most recent entry on my to-read list, I’ve included it for the sheer number of times I’ve checked this book about female pirates out of the library and never started it.

~Meredith T.